After a long period of isolation, China embarked on an open door policy in 1978. Keen to modernize her economy and improve her living standards, China sought to intensify her economic relations with Japan, one of her closest neighbours and one of the most advanced and dynamic economies in the world. An air of optimism marked the signing of the Japan-China Long Term Trade Protocol in 1978. China was confident that this agreement would launch her into the path of modernization in a relatively short period of time. This process of intensification of economic links with Japan, however, was not without difficulties. Over the years between 1979 and 1985, the Chinese failed to fulfil key obligations of the agreement including the non-payment for service received and the permiting of, severe shortfalls in the supply of agreed goods. The execution of the agreement was beset with problems. The agreement from which both sides had hoped to reap substantial economic benefits did not bear fruit; instead friction developed, which had ensued with disastrous consequences for both sides. What was the root cause of this friction? Was it the consequence of the incompatibility of the economic systems, one communist and the other capitalist? Or was the failure the result of political factors? Or could it be a much deeper reason relating to inherent socio-cultural factors which affected the decision-making processes in each of the countries? This thesis seeks to examine closely the root cause of the Chinese-Japanese trade friction. The writer argues that while different ideologies and political systems contributed to the problem, the dominant reason has socio-cultural origins, which have to do with the way the Chinese and Japanese societies evolved historically. Although both societies had Confucian ethical underpinnings of their social systems, they began to develop their own distinct characteristics. This coloured their world views and had a major impact in the way each society evolved its management practices. The Chinese rejection of some key aspects of Confucianism and its acceptance of Qinstyle authoritarianism, as subsequently modified by Sino- Marxist principles, produced an organisational framework and set of practices that did not prepare China to meet the demands of economic modernisation. This had adversely effected China's abilities to manage its trade relations with the economically advanced Japan. Section One of this thesis, which includes Chapters 1 and 2, outlines the framework of Chinese-Japanese trade cooperation beginning in the late 1970's. Chapter 1. seeks to give an overview of the rationale behind China's new open-door policy and its expectations of trade co-operation with Japan. It outlines the nature of trade co-operation including the structure of China-Japan trade. Chapter 2. proceeds to discuss the ensuing difficulties and the responses of the Chinese and Japanese governments. The writer then discusses the subsequent actions taken by the two governments to revive the co-operation that had gone wrong. An analysis of the faults of both governments that led to the disastrous consequences is then made. Section Two, which includes Chapters 3 and 4, seeks to examine the fundamental causes of the friction in the trade relations between the two countries. The writer examines the role played by socio-cultural factors and how they affected the decision-making processes in both countries. In particular, Chapter 3. analyses the role of feudalism in China as modified by the emergence of the centralized bureaucracy which characterize the Qin dynasty (221 to 207 BC). The impact of the anti-merchantilism, which was the direct consequence of Qin-style bureaucracy, and the question of the destruction of the urban middle class by the bureaucracy are highlighted. The writer argues that the absence of the urban middle class is one of the fundamental reasons why China is unable to produce an economically-progressive, capitalist-oriented society. This led to a state of economic backwardness. Chapter 4. contrasts the Chinese situation with Japan, by analysing the ideological underpinning of Japanese society. It outlines the various reform movements in Japan that led to the development of a society that is economically dynamic . A modern state has emerged in Japan in contrast to the emergence of a backward society in China. The writer also discusses the influence of Japanese Confucian values in the development of this modern state. This was to have a significant impact on Japanese management philosophy and practices. The last Section, which includes Chapter 5, 6, and 7, discusses the lessons to be learnt from the trade friction betwen the two countries. In particular, Chapter 5. analyses the vastly different approaches taken by the Chinese in contrast to the Japanese. The Chinese decision-making process which is characterized by chaos, inefficiency and bureaucratic bungling is contrasted with the Japanese style. The latter's approach is systematic, well thought out and meticulously planned. The Japanese, however, failed to take into account the vastly different operating environment in their dealings with China. Chinese behavioural responses were a variable that the Japanese were unprepared to deal with. This resulted in chaos in the strategic management of the trade relations between the two countries. Notwithstanding this friction, however, both China and Japan realize that they must proceed with their trade relations and minimize whatever frictions emerged over time. The last part of the thesis, Chapter 6. outlines the possible approaches that both sides can adopt in their dealings with each other. An approach with Lindblom's "muddling through" perspective is recommended by the writer. Chapter 7 contains the conclusion drawn from this study.

<p>The core purpose of this study is to follow the development of strategic alliances within the banking sector. The objective is to get an idea of the use of strategic alliances in German banking and, furthermore, to understand what kind of alliances are entered and why. This will be achieved by analyzing and evaluating different German banks. The aim is to follow the tendency of banks to co-operate with other banks and competitors as well as intersectoral partners.</p>

This thesis presents contributions within two domains of manufacturing system development. The first domain is systematic design of product and manufacturing system. The second domain is model based co-operative development between manufacturing companies and manufacturing system suppliers. The axiomatic design framework for design is used to describe the product design and the manufacturing system design. The most important contributions are that product properties and analysis of product function are considered when specifying the manufacturing system. The systematic adaptation of product to the selected manufacturing solution is another contribution. A new concept of manufacturing phase functional requirements has been defined in order to cope with requirements from the manufacturing process on the in process product. The co-operative concept is based on the use of ISO 10303-214 for specification and communication of proposed systems and equipment. The concept has been tested using real project information in prototype implementation / QC 20100913

The core purpose of this study is to follow the development of strategic alliances within the banking sector. The objective is to get an idea of the use of strategic alliances in German banking and, furthermore, to understand what kind of alliances are entered and why. This will be achieved by analyzing and evaluating different German banks. The aim is to follow the tendency of banks to co-operate with other banks and competitors as well as intersectoral partners.

This research investigates the impact of cooperation policies on participation in, and benefits from, online learning object exchanges. First, an in-depth study of issues encountered in other online contexts (peer-to-peer systems, discussion group with lurkers, reputation systems) provided evidence that explicit cooperation policies and motivation techniques could bring benefits to online object exchanges. A case study is presented based on the comparison between two peer-to-peer systems, Mojo Nation and Gnutella, to show how cooperative policies could add value to online communities. This case study highlights several issues, such as the algorithm of pricing/exchange mechanism. Successfully solving these issues will be the key to identifying the benefits of an e-marketplace based online object exchange. An outline of an experimental exchange mechanism is presented, along with a prototype interface for users. To investigate further issues for users, an online scenario-based questionnaire was set up to measure potential users' attitudes towards cooperation policies. The detailed analysis on questionnaire results shows that cooperation policies hold promise to make the online object exchange more efficient. The results also illustrated how a transaction-based community could achieve the following benefits: increase of ROI object value discovery faster repository expansion better motivation through reputation recognition

This research investigates the impact of cooperation policies on participation in, and benefits from, online learning object exchanges. First, an in-depth study of issues encountered in other online contexts (peer-to-peer systems, discussion group with lurkers, reputation systems) provided evidence that explicit cooperation policies and motivation techniques could bring benefits to online object exchanges. A case study is presented based on the comparison between two peer-to-peer systems, Mojo Nation and Gnutella, to show how cooperative policies could add value to online communities. This case study highlights several issues, such as the algorithm of pricing/exchange mechanism. Successfully solving these issues will be the key to identifying the benefits of an e-marketplace based online object exchange. An outline of an experimental exchange mechanism is presented, along with a prototype interface for users. To investigate further issues for users, an online scenario-based questionnaire was set up to measure potential users' attitudes towards cooperation policies. The detailed analysis on questionnaire results shows that cooperation policies hold promise to make the online object exchange more efficient. The results also illustrated how a transaction-based community could achieve the following benefits: increase of ROI object value discovery faster repository expansion better motivation through reputation recognition

The curriculum of the Swedish school system explains how the transitions between the preschool class and the pre-school should be. The co-operation between the organisations should aim for a long term perspective with the students learning process in mind (Lgr11). The pre-school has almost the same aim in their curriculum, as the curriculum of the Swedish school system. The aim with my study is to examine how the teachers from the different organizations relate to knowledge and how they look at the students social interactions. Also how the transition between the pre-school and the pre-school class is viewed from their point of view.  How do the teachers from the different organisations comprehend knowledge? How do the teachers from the different organisations comprehend the social abilities? How do the teachers from the different organisations work and interact in terms of the transition between the pre-school and the pre-school class? The study that has been made is about the transitions between the pre-school and the pre-school class. It´s been investigated by doing interviews with teachers from both the pre-school and the pre-school class. The result from these is that the teachers from the different organisations have the same view about knowledge and social interactions. They didn´t have the same view at Co-operation this because their organizations was structured in a different way and also they hadn´t any guidelines to follow.

The pedagogical process is a kind of people activities without which society can not exist and develop. If we want the society to be not only educated but also up brought, the parents and teachers have to take part in this process together. Family and school are two institutes which are connected by the subject of upbringing – children. The purposes of upbringing these, two main institutes (family and school) have to be the same because the third “institute” (the yard and street) will be the winner. If we want to solve the problem connected with the upbringing of a child, the active co-operation between school and family is necessary. The efficient co-operation creates mutual reliance. So it is important to know the parent’s opinion about cooperation with the school, how the teachers of primary education organizes the work with the parents. This was the reason why the author wrote this work. The purpose of the work – to analyze the peculiarities of organizing the cooperation between the primary school teachers and the parents. 50 primary education teachers and 100 parents from 5 school took part in the questionnaire. Ten principals from the same schools were interviewed. To know the importance and significance of cooperation between the school and family, the law documents were analyzed, the scientific literature was studied and the questionnaires were used to know the opinion of the teachers, parents and headmasters. When the scientific literature was finished to analyze... [to full text]

Studien undersökte hur arbetet inom den personalkooperativa verksamheten upplevdes av medlemmar och anställda, samt skillnaden dem emellan. I denna studie användes personalkooperativ för att det där ingår både medlemmar, som är ägare av kooperativet, och anställda. Syftet uppnåddes genom intervjuer där tre frågeställningar användes: vad upplevda erfarenheten är av att ingå i ett personalkooperativ, hur företagets handlingar stämmer överens med de aktuella kooperativens sju principer, samt hur deltagarna förhåller sig till Maslows behov.  Resultatet visade dels att möjligheten att själv kunna påverka arbetet var skälet till varför deltagarna valt att ingå i ett kooperativ. Dock angavs som negativt saknaden av en chef och den bristande ekonomin. Skillnaden mellan medlemmar och anställda framgick genom att medlemmarna fokuserade mer på verksamheten som helhet medan de anställda lade fokus på interaktionen mellan kollegor. Validiteten försvagades då urvalet skedde via målinriktat urval.

Diss. Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2007.